


Time Limit - 50 Moments In Black, White, and Red

by HighVelocity



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-06
Updated: 2012-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-29 02:05:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HighVelocity/pseuds/HighVelocity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1sentence challenge, theme set Delta.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Limit - 50 Moments In Black, White, and Red

#01 - Air - Sometimes, the Autobots get a sense of the unusual hanging around the space, like a flicker of static over comms and a ghosting of something over sensors; those days, Ironhide goes all quiet, and goes alone to the beach, where he stands in an easy parade rest by a bleached-gray chunk of driftwood, a great black sentinel, facing the sunset and the sea.

\---------------------------------------- \---------------------------

#02 - Apples - "If that's supposed to be the grease for this rusty wheel," Trailbreaker says with a smirk, red visor flashing, tossing the cube of highgrade in the air, "S'appreciated, but bribery ain't gunna work, darlin'."

#03 - Beginning - Trailbreaker's patrol buddy graces him with a glare and a grunt, but he willingly flops down beside the mech and pulls over a can of polish and a rag - after all, more hands make light work, and 'Breaker's just glad for the little bit of cheating they manage to get in - means he won't have to sit here on cleaning detail all day.

#04 - Bugs - With carefully blank faces and equally blank fields, and cool-as-liquid-nitro systems, they both stand at easy parade rest while Kup glares fire and brimstone and swears that if he ever catches them doing    
_that_ again, he's kicking their afts twelve ways from Iacon clear across the planet to Kaon - quietly, Trailbreaker palms the last of the mini-cams and fights a smirk.

#05 - Coffee - He stumbles in looking like death warmed over, and growls half-heartedly at the smug look he gets - "Notta word, 'Hide, jus' pass me those boosters, 'm beggin' ya."

#06 - Dark - Seated on the berth, optics dimmed, he's very aware of when a freshly patched and very exhausted Trailbreaker stumbles in cursing, and he's there to catch the red-visored mech before he mashes half his face into the ground.

#07 - Despair - When the weight of his thoughts threatens and he gets completely barred from any and all of his usual outlets, it's Trailbreaker who smartly boots his aft into the washracks with a curt 'Clean the frag up, you 'tard', and blows it to oblivion.

#08 - Doors - " _Slam_ a crankshaft up that tailpipe sideways and  _twist_ , swear on my spark, when I catch the idiot that  _worked_  this door I'mma kill him  _so hard_  he's gunna  _waddle_ back to Primus with  _half a bleedin' aft_  - Ironhide,  _respond_ , dammit, for the love of the lil' mechs!"

#09 - Drink - "You're so overcharged it's not even funny, 'Breaker."

#10 - Duty - They stand around his berth with solemn expressions; someone's hands in his, someone's hands on his shoulder, someone frowns and someone has a sad little half-smile - but what comforts him, really, is that they understand why he'd done it, and as he surveys the array of mechs around him almost tiredly, Trailbreaker knows that they'd have done the same for him, too.

#11 - Earth - _"Yeah, heard about your deployments - but look, don't want you fretting, don't want you going all fuzzy-processored over it, just do the job, a'right, mate, and I'll see you when we get there."_

#12 - End - The hardest part, which he refuses to admit to, is not going to be the distance, nor the silence, or even the prospect of facing a very long interstellar journey with the very mech that is almost the bane of his existence - it will be leaving behind the newly minted defensive strategist, and all the friendly support he'd offered through the long vorns, that will ache the most.

\---------------------------------------- \---------------------------

#13 - Fall - "Way I see it, he's the kind of mech who doesn't mind many lovers and who doesn't really care when, but there'll only ever be one bondmate for him," 'Breaker says quietly, smoothing a hand over 'Hide's backstruts.

#14 - Fire - Trailbreaker's a cheerful kind of mech, everyone knows that; and he is, he really is, and it's just within his spark to reach out, help, cajole, make others feel better, cheer them on - but sometimes, even the cheerleader needs a little cheering up; with that in mind, Ironhide sits back, eyes, the somewhat sullen mech before him, and  _plots_ .

#15 - Flexible - He can't  _believe_ Ironhide's just pulled that on him, but with the mech's glossa doing  _that_ thing and his fingers doing that  _other_ thing - Trailbreaker finds he can't actually think at all.

#16 - Flying - They eye the cliffside, eye the fuel levels in their jetpacks, shrug and jump anyway, with twin expressions and frantic comms of 'Oh Primus we're gunna die' and 'wait till word gets back to the Twins', and for good measure; 'we're never doing that ever  _ever_ again, not even if Prime makes it an order'.

\---------------------------------------- \---------------------------

#17 - Food - Ironhide nearly pulls that same trick again, of a gashed energon line from which TB should be able to get enough energon just to keep him going - but Trailbreaker grabs his hand, shakes his head 'no', and walks him through setting up a transfusion shunt instead.

#18 - Foot - "Your foot ain't gunna rust, what the Pit, idiot," he snaps, giving a long-suffering shutter-blink-roll of optics when Ironhide gingerly lifts his foot from the muck and shakes it out with a disgusted look.

#19 - Grave - It's common superstition, more common than one would think - Trailbreaker never once says goodbye - none of them ever do; it's their own desperate attempt to delay the ever-increasing possibility that one day someone's usual place in the common room will be empty all too suddenly, and they don't need that kind of spark-breaking slag.

#20 - Green - They run this by heart, now, all of them, and Trailbreaker, watching the teams deploy with cool effeciency, feels the little surge of pride race through his spark.

#21 - Head - "Babe, I know you've got a harder helm than I do, so maybe you could, y'know, take it easy with the headbuttin'," Trailbreaker says, struggling to push reeling processors through a reboot; damn but 'Hide so got that one.

#22 - Hollow - They do not dream, it's common knowledge; but Trailbreaker never forgets the one time he jerked out of recharge with fear pulsing at his temples and his spark aching, feeling curiously light and bitter at the same time, fingerpads racing over his visor and chest with the fear that he'd find cracks across the smooth band and long jagged rents in his plating.

#23 - Honor - The 'Con is  _down_ , he's already down, fraggit, he doesn't need to do this; but the harsh growl over comms cracks out an order even as red-white-black surges past him, and the young mech doesn't hesitate despite shaking hands, blade sliding home with a decisive snick and screech of metal on metal - maybe he'll be sick later - but he looks up to see the team leader's grim smile, and that, that makes it all right, almost.

\---------------------------------------- \---------------------------

#24 - Hope - Planetfall, and suddenly he and his team are surrounded by familiar signatures; Trailbreaker grins, salutes Prime, feeling suddenly lighter and younger for the first time in  _vorns_ ; the sight of the old black warrior only adds to his quiet delight.

#25 - Light - Day one finds 'Breaker perched on the lookout, drinking in the sunrise; later in the day Ironhide joins him and they sit in companionable silence until sundown.

#26 - Lost - "One mile looks just like the other," Trailbreaker grouses unexpectedly to Ironhide's amused engine rumble, limping home after an unexpected landslide forces him off-road and promptly gets him a little lost - it's just a little, he swears, growling in annoyance as he heads right for the washracks.

#27 - Metal - "You're  _just_ like him," complains the Hummer with a rude shutter-blink-roll of optics, plucking out a sliver of shrapnel buried somewhere deep in Trailbreaker's knee joint; all the strategist offers is a lopsided grin.

#28 - New - The Protectobot team finally makes its way to Earth, much to the delight of the Autobots, along with two of the femmes; Trailbreaker, however, hasn't got eyes for them, having been caught instead by the shy grace of a white-and-red ambulance, much to the amusement of Ironhide.

#29 - Old - The clasp of hands and the grip on his wrist, the steady look in the other's optics; it's all Trailbreaker needs, to know that his friend and one-time lover is now well and truly at peace, and he smiles.

#30 - Peace - "This is my favourite time," he says quietly, gesturing to the clearing sky, looking to sleepy blue optics; "when everything's quiet, and fresh, and new-looking and like yesterday hasn't touched it yet; it gives me hope, 'Hide, that maybe today I can try to correct the past, if only just a little."

#31 - Poison - Trailbreaker goes to Ratchet one morning, shaking fingers rubbing absently over his chassis, touching over his visor; "I'm really sorry, Doc, I know we don't dream an' all, but that's the only explanation I can come up with because I've seen this series of images once before and to be honest, it scared the slag out of me then and it's still scaring the slag out of me..."

#32 - Pretty - "I can't believe you still have that holo; it's not even that good," Trailbreaker half-laughs, fingering the edge of the frame, and Ironhide gives him a low rumble of amusement and fondness, poking him in the side of the head. 

#33 - Rain - Day he decides he hates the rain after he hydroplanes and slams into a tree, is also the day 'Hide understands Hound's chagrin at that pic of a Jeep impaled on a tree limb; 'Breaker hunts out the Topkick in the 'bay to offer some company that isn't one very annoyed Hummer.

#34 - Regret - "Yeah, we could've made it good," he says, lips pursed, carefully not looking at the Topkick; "But you know what, I've seen you happy, I'm seeing you happy, and that... that's more than enough, for me."

#35 - Roses - Since Trailbreaker knows full well that the Topkick's idea of romance is unconventional, to say the least, watching him shove an entire rosebush at a very taken-aback Ratchet on the human's Valentine's Day event is way beyond hilarious.

#36 - Secret - "If you think I never loved him," comes the low, angry growl, vibrating with outrage; "You're dead wrong."

#37 - Snakes - "DUDE, I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY ARE, JUST SHUT DOWN THAT DAMNED WINDOW AND NEVER, EVER, SHOW ME ANYTHING FROM 4CHAN EVER AGAIN."

#38 - Snow - The two of them stand out like sore thumbs against the blanket of white; Trailbreaker laughs, and shoves the weapons specialist into a snowbank, much the the amusement of the Twins and Jazz - a game of Pile On The Old Topkick commences.

#39 - Solid - Big mechs, little rock ledge; that particular equation was never going to end well, and as they limp back to base in a tangle of dents and damage, 'Hide's just glad the medic is mellow enough these days to go a little softer on them, while 'Breaker manages to charm First Aid into working on him.

#40 - Spring - "You know, Earth critters and all, they're real cute and fun and all of that, but seriously, Prime, I find another pair of cats, dogs, deer, whatever, tryin' for sparklings  _on me_  yet again, I'm shootin'."

#41 - Stable - "Ridin' looks like real fun," 'Breaker comments, once, and doesn't quite understand the sudden leer he gets in return.

#42 - Strange - Trailbreaker's heartened to see that Ratchet holds him no ill will, and he's immensely glad to know that the medic never did; but it  _may_ be a little more than his logic circuits and emotional core can handle, the idea of a threesome - just, uh, he'll go over there and try not to fritz out, and shuttup, Jazz, it's not very funny.

#43 - Summer - They both grumble about the heat when the mercury rises, because of the amount of black they both sport; one especially hot day, Prowl joins them in the shade, much to the amusement of the rest of the mechs on base.

#44 - Taboo - "'Bee, you'd better let the humans know that the 'no-mating' rule extends to them, too," Trailbreaker growls, flicking away yet  _another_ pair of promiscious squirrels off his plating with a baleful glare.

#45 - Ugly - They're so steady it's gorgeous and spark-breaking, because Trailbreaker knows they don't have room for anymore and he's fine looking for his own mate(First Aid is  _mighty_ fine in his humble opinion); but he can't resist when they both pull him in, even when he tells himself he should stop, really, he should stop this (but  _why_ , they're  _right_ there, and they're willing to share, but it's just - just  _not_ right...)

#46 - War - Ironhide swipes furiously at the paint dripping off him, trickling under plating and beginning to itch, sending one long angry glance at medic and defensive strategist before snatching up twin canisters of cherry red and deep green; "Run," is all he growls as he pursues the cackling mechs.

#47 - Water - Ten miles is no sweat for a mech, Ironhide muses, shaking himself with a rattling whine of shifting gears and machinery; ten miles  _underwater_ is a whole new ballgame, though with Trailbreaker's field, they're nowhere near as wet as they could have been, thank Primus.

#48 - Welcome - He isn't sure what's going on, but he's perfectly happy to give his best friend and his lover, his bondmate, the distance he feels they need during a particularly intense discussion; it ends with the crack of metal on metal as they smile, grip each other's hands with a surety, a finality, that lifts a weight none of them were really aware of in the first place - all is well.

#49 - Winter - In the cold, the temperature isn't as much of an issue as the environment currently is; wet, slick, treacherous, with ice balling underfoot and making it hard for any of them to get a grip on solid ground - it's then that one misstep costs them half the existing force, even as they take down the biggest heavy-hitters of the Decepticon army and break its backbone; at the end, for the longest time, all Ironhide can see is the dim, shattered red of a familiar visor.

\---------------------------------------- \---------------------------

#50 - Wood - Eventually, he gets the holo of Trailbreaker done up as a print, and he takes the slip of coated paper down to the beach; Ironhide slides it between the branches of a bleached-gray chunk of driftwood, and leaves it there to face the sunrise and the sea.


End file.
